PETALING JAYA, May 26 – As food media, I think it is important to regularly challenge our assumptions about where "good” food can come from.
I will readily admit to being more than slightly sceptical about Fish With You, a chain founded in 2017 with over 2,000 locations across 360 cities worldwide.
They have locations from Dubai to New York, but the location in The Starling Mall in Damansara Utama marks their first in Malaysia.
They specialise in suan cai yu, a Chinese dish of boiled fish slices with pickled mustard greens (most places call it sauerkraut, for reasons which escape me) and has had a whirlwind year here, helped especially by social media.
The dish itself isn’t a hard sell for me; I can easily see the appeal: it’s tangy, sour and sometimes spicy, and the perfect excuse to wolf down a few bowls of rice.
Rather, it’s the almost dystopian set-up with the M&M orange colour scheme and the nightmare-inducing fish mascot that makes the Burger King mascot look like a saint that concerns me so.
The name means something like "together with you”, but is also a pun in Mandarin as the word for fish, 鱼, is a homophone with 与, the word for "with”.
Puns, branding and a rapidly scalable business model aside, it becomes pretty apparent why the chain has seemingly found success on a global scale.
The cold snacks are great; both the black fungus salad (RM9.90) and Chinese cucumber salad (RM7.90) were well-executed and refreshing.
We then got a regular portion of the classic aromatic spicy suan cai fish, which the staff at the counter described as a classic order. It’s a slight price increase to get it with toman, or snakehead fish at RM36.80, which includes two toppings; we opted for beancurd skin and sweet potato noodles.
What arrived was a fiery red bowl of pain and pleasure that called for plenty of rice. Each regular portion comes with free rice for one person, which is refillable from the row of rice cookers at the back.
The broth was teeming with Sichuan peppercorns, dried chillis and so much heat that my tongue was practically numb to any suggestion of piquancy – but it was pretty addictive. Best of all were the beancurd skins and sweet potato noodles, both playful textures that maximised surface area for optimal spice delivery. The slipper, chewy and transparent noodles were especially delightful.
Adding to that, we also got a regular portion of Lao Tan suan cai fish, which was suggested for those who like it more tangy than spicy. For this, we stuck with the dory by default, which meant it was RM28.80.
Now this – this was a moreish bowl with broth that demanded more than a couple of bowls of rice. When sliced and prepared this way, there’s little discernable difference between the two types of fish, which shouldn’t matter because it's the broth that you’re really eating anyway.
There’s something about the punchy, zesty acidity of this one that’s a winner for me. The pickled mustard greens get to shine a lot more, even with the liberal use of dried chillies and a few Sichuan peppercorns – it puts the suan in suan cai yu.
Sweating, sniffling and red in the face, one could colour me impressed. It’s almost surprising how tasty it all is when the "kitchen” looks more like the inside of an industrial warehouse and most of the cooking is done with pre-measured portions of just about everything.
It may not be a place that immediately comes to mind when I think of a memorable meal, and sure, it’s bereft of any kind of soul underneath the corporate sheen – but, without wanting to sound too enthusiastic, I can see myself coming back here sooner rather than later.
Fish With You Malaysia 鱼你在一起
S-226, Level 2, the Starling, Damansara Utama, 47400 Petaling Jaya, Selangor
Open daily, 11am-10pm.
Tel: 011-5422 6593
Instagram: @fishwithyou_malaysia
* This is an independent review where the writer paid for the meal.
* Follow us on Instagram @eatdrinkmm for more food gems.
